WO-A-01/47577 discloses a programmable powered breast pump apparatus. The disclosed breast pump apparatus is programmed by recording control data on or in a data carrier which is then inserted into the breast pump apparatus. The control data is read from the data carrier and controls the pumping cycle.
The breast pump apparatus disclosed in WO-A-01/47577 suffers from the disadvantage that the programming process is complex.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,084 discloses a powered breast pump in which the user has some limited control over the pumping cycle. The limited control that the user has is itself a problem.